These soft rice dumplings (pardon us for Westernising the term) with the quintessential gooey goodness of jaggery and coconut are just to die for! The good old modaks or kozhukattai or kadubus that are known by different names across the country are loved not only during the Ganesha festival but throughout the year. While the traditional modaks or kozhukattais consist of jaggery and coconut with a dash of cardamom, the kadubus which are a speciality in Karnataka, also come with a filling of sesame or chana dal. There’s also the savoury version of the same (called uzhundu kozhukattai in Tamil) stuffed with mashed urad dal, coconut and chillies, which may not be as popular as its sweet counterpart but is nevertheless made in many homes across the South as prasadam for the deity. But over the years, these tasty and fluffy bites of crumbly sweet and salty fillings have undergone an array of inventions. So while you have a rocking Ganesha in a cricket uniform, you also have the quirky chocolate or fruit modak as prasadam to go along with it.
Be it the dry fruit or paan modaks with gulkhand fillings or even the instant Oreo modaks, people are experimenting with the humble modak like never before. Blame the hundreds and millions of recipes on social media at our easy disposal or Covid turning all of us into home chefs! Whatever the reason may be, we are surely not complaining about these innovative and instant recipes. “Nowadays, many authentic dishes are being modified and the same holds true for the modak. People like to experiment with the covering, fillings and shapes of modaks. So while you have the classic version with coconut and jaggery, there are also multiple other options like fried modak, modak with a coating of potato starch, transparent modak etc,” opines Chef Sombir Choudhary, culinary partner at Raahi Neo Kitchen & Bar, a gourmet restaurant in Bengaluru.
Although Gurudatt Shivapooja, another chef, isn’t too keen on experimenting with modaks, he doesn’t mind the innovations. “Many food-lovers and chefs want to be creative and give a modern twist to traditional food. As long as it has a good blend of flavours and is appetising at the same time, it’s perfectly fine,” he says. The best part about a modak is undoubtedly the filling, which when experimented with well, can be an exciting burst of flavours. “As a kid, I would watch my mother and grandmother prepare the outer covering. I was, however, the most excited about the sweet coconut stuffing and would even take a bowl of it to my room to munch on later,” reminisces Gurudatt. And it’s not just the mixture inside that can be customised. Even the modaks can take on an array of shapes considering the number of moulds available in the market. So this year, go ahead and try some unique modaks that are a tad different and as cool as the elephant-headed God himself.
Hazelnut & dark chocolate modak
“While growing up, we had a variety of sweets made at home like peda, chocolate barfi and of course, the modak. I remember mixing everything together in a bowl and having it. Thanks to that, I had the idea of making a modak with the flavours of dark chocolate and hazelnut. I truly believe that if hazelnut and chocolate were a local produce here, this would have been the way the original modak would have been made,” says chef Sombir.
Ingredients
Milk: 1 cup
Sweet condensed milk:1 cup
Callebaut chocolate 55%: ¾ cup
Lotus biscuit crumbs: 1 ½ cups
Finely chopped hazelnut: ¼ cup
A medium-sized modak mould
Method
Take milk, condensed milk and chocolate in a pan. Stir on medium-low heat and let the chocolate melt and the mixture combine well. Keep stirring to make sure that it does not stick to the pan.
Once the mixture is smooth and shiny, add the biscuit crumbs. Start mixing and halfway through, add chopped pistachios. Mix and form a dough.
Shift it to a plate and let it cool down. Grease the modak mould using ghee and close it. Stuff a small portion of the mixture from the bottom hole. Then open the mould and gently unmould.
Repeat the process a few times and serve.